It is no secret that the development process for games as large and beautiful as Super Mario Odyssey takes time, and with the last 3D Mario game Super Mario 3D World being released back in 2013, the development for Odyssey will have been well underway during the Wii U's active lifetime. As such, it would make sense to assume that a Wii U version of the game may well have been on the cards at one point, or at least running to some degree, but this doesn't appear to be the case.

In the latest issue of Game Informer, the game's producer, and all-round cool guy, Yoshiaki Koizumi said the following about Odyssey's development process:

“It was always planned for Nintendo Switch. We really were considering a lot of the hardware capabilities specifically for this game, and wanted to make the most use of them.”

With the various control options available to players within the game, and the emphasis given to using the Joy-Con as a priority, it does make sense that the Switch was always going to be the final destination for Odyssey. Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi added the following:

“I think the idea of what the Nintendo Switch is became very important around here, because it can both function as a console or portable device. We really thought about what sort of software features would make the best use of those capabilities. Super Mario Odyssey really answers to a lot of that capability in the way we had hoped. We wanted to time it for year-end release to make the most of that as well.”

The double release for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (which saw versions on Wii U and Switch last March) may have left some players wondering why the same treatment wasn't offered to Super Mario Odyssey, but it would appear that their development processes had completely different aims and approaches.

Would you have liked to see a version on Wii U, or do you think it is right that Nintendo fully shifted its focus to the Switch? Feel free to sound off your thoughts in the comments.

Ryan’s that annoying kind of guy in multiplayer games - you know the one, the kind of person that throws a temper tantrum if he can’t be Yoshi in Mario Kart or gets stuck with the controller with the dodgy button. Yeah, that kind.